With the #1 district tournament seed locked up, the Marshals were looking to go undefeated in district play with a win over Calloway County on Friday in Murray. The Lakers had other plans and ended the Marshals 10-game win streak with a 72-71 victory while getting their first district win of the season.
Despite the loss, a new Marshall County single game scoring record was set by Zion Harmon with 50 points, breaking the record of 47 points held by Daniel Ard against Ohio County Dec. 10, 2005. The 50 point game also broke the Jeffrey Gymnasium scoring record of 47 points that had held up since 1968 and again in 1971. It was the first loss at Calloway County for the Marshals in five years.
Plagued by a slow start, the Marshals fell behind 13-2 prompting a time out by Head Coach Terry Birdsong. Tyler Stokes got on the board out of the time out, Harmon added four points and Tyler Powell two but they trailed 22-10 going into the second quarter. Five different players scored for the Lakers in the quarter led by six a piece from Kade Mize, Chandler Steele and Cade Butler.
The Marshals chipped away at the 12-point lead, out-scoring Calloway County 26-11 in the second quarter to lead 36-33 at halftime, Harmon with 19 points to bring his first half total to 25 and the rest scored by Powell.
The second half was a tale of ties and lead changes, the Marshals holding a slight lead until Steele put the Lakers up 41-40. Free throws from Stokes put the Marshals back up by one, Mize swinging the lead back to the Lakers at 44-42 on a three. Tied up at 44 and again at 46, Bryce Flatt gave the Marshals a two point lead from the free throw line and Steele and Harmon swapped baskets to close out the quarter on a 51-50 Laker lead.
The Marshals fell behind by three points five different times in the fourth quarter before the final minute of play when trailing 70-69 with 30 seconds to go, Calloway left the door open slightly when Steele missed both free throws after Flatt picked up his fifth foul. Harmon put the Marshals up by one with 22 seconds left, Butler doing the same for the Lakers with 7.2 on the clock. An offensive foul call on Harmon with four seconds to go looked to be the game, but the ball went out-of-bounds on Calloway leaving two seconds for a last-ditch length-of-the-court effort by the Marshals that came up short.
Harmon’s 50 points came on 19 of 32 attempts and he was 6/7 in free throws and the Marshals as a team continued to perform well from the free throw line hitting 14 of 16. Four in double figures led the charge for the Lakers. Steele had 23, Mize 17, Butler 15 and Ki Franklin 11.
The Marshals will look to pick up their 18th win of the season today (Sat.) against Christian County (9-17), the JV game tipping off at 6:00 followed by Varsity at 7:30.
Marshall County 10 36 50 71
Calloway County 22 33 51 72
Scoring
Marshall County: Zion Harmon 50, Tyler Powell 11, Tyler Stokes 8, Bryce Flatt 2
Marshall County: FG 25/45, 3 Pt 7/15, FT 14/16, Reb 21